Or cubist composites, or stretched composites. I don’t know what to call them, so I’ll start with that.
My original composites
These became the composites in my solo exhibition at the Riverside Theatre Gallery in March 2024.
New Work, different Photo and Artifacts
In May I made some more, using other artifacts and a different photo from the same era.
I used the same techniques as with the earlier images to produce the composites below. I displayed them in different grid arrangements.
To produce the new series of composites, as above.
Cubist/Surreal, Scattered/Stretched Images
I wanted to try something based on a sort of cubist/surreal, scattered/stretched image (CSSS), using the above new series as the new starting point. I’ll go through an example, then the series of CSSS images and also some digressions from them.
The starting example image is from the bottom row of the above grid.
In Photoshop I put a 4×4 grid on the image to show 16 sections of the image. I then used the polygonal selection tool to make a geometric selection of each section, and each selection was placed on its own layer (new layer via copy), so that I could edit each section separately. It would be possible to make complex edits of each section of the image, but I just did some simple stuff (described below) initially
I added a yellow/green background fill and a vertical gradient to make the selections stand out. It has a sort of ‘stained glass’ effect too.
Then I took each selection in turn, moved it from its starting position in the image, magnified or minimised its size, sometimes rotated it. Each section could be edited independently and the image is open to being produced in many different final versions.
Then I used a Colour look up table (LUT) to get its (almost) final unified effect.
After a bit of thought, I put the image into Topaz Studio 2 and did some almost, final tweaking, then just altering the blend mode or opacity to get the final, final image. (Similar to the method for my earlier ‘Cubist’ images.)
New Composite to CSSS Comparisons
Here are some of the new composites as I made them and comparisons with the versions with the CSSS processing. I’ll complete them very soon. This could be what I could show in the exhibition. I could change the CSSS versions easily, the selections being on their own layers, are amenable to editing. I have just finished the initial editing, so there’s time needed for reflection on them.
Reflections/Thoughts on the Exhibition
I wonder what the proposal feedback will be as I hadn’t done the CSSS versions by the revised, earlier proposal deadline, I was following the original timetable which stated proposals to be in for 30th May (tomorrow).
If they are to go in the exhibition, I could make a video, photobook or flipbook of these images. Still thinking and looking at them. I think now that the process is almost there, but the final work needs more thought and reflection.
